Local candidates debate issues in Ukiah forum

Candidates in four races to be decided by voters in November debated the issues concerning each of their districts at a forum held Tuesday night at the Ukiah Civic Center.

Attendance was scant, and all eligible candidates attended in only one of the four races to field questions from audience members and the moderators.

Ukiah Unified School District

In the race for one open seat on the Ukiah Unified School District board of directors, incumbent Carolyn Barrett fielded questions alone when her challenger, Michael Weidner, did not attend.

"Parents want what's best for their children," Barrett said, answering a question about how to best reach out to the community to meet students' educational needs. "We need to make sure they know how they can help."

She talked also about the need to reach out to the Hispanic community and to low-income families.

Asked about truancy, Barrett said it had been an issue in recent years.

"It's hard to get some of our students to school," she said. "We can meet with parents, we can do all we can to encourage them, but we really don't have the teeth, so to speak, that we need to make sure that they get here."

Ukiah Valley Fire District

Lee Howard and Allen Cherry were the only two of three candidates for two open seats on the board of directors for the Ukiah Valley Fire District who showed up at the forum. The third candidate, D.C. "Butch" Carpenter, did not attend.

The questions asked of them had mostly to do with an ongoing merger process with the city of Ukiah Fire Department.

Howard, a local business owner, said he's lived in the Ukiah Valley all his life and has served on the district's board and other boards previously, and said he's running because he wants to see the district through its merger with the city's fire department.

Cherry said he's lived in the valley since 1980, and after retiring from public service and taking a break from sitting on non-profit boards, was approached by neighbors about running for the district seat to bring "fresh, new eyes and hopefully some creative thinking" to the merger process.

Both candidates agreed the merger was needed.

"I contended from day one, way back when we broke as a district, that it would be better to have one ... fire agency over the entire area," Howard said.

"Our board will have to take a completely fresh look at what ... staffing assets (and) what physical assets we have, and are there other ways that we could also enhance our funding by better utilizing the assets that we're going to have once the two departments are merged."

Asked about the benefits of merging, Cherry said that having one command structure would be more efficient, and Howard agreed, adding that eliminating duplicative "higher-up" command would save money.

Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation and Improvement District

Of the four candidates running for three seats on the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation and Improvement District, only incumbent Richard Shoemaker and challenger Frank McMichael were present. Judy Hatch and Paul Zellman did not attend.

The district is "a partner with the Sonoma County Water Agency in the project to build Coyote Dam," Shoemaker said when asked what the district does. Mendocino County owns the rights to 8,000 acre feet of water behind the dam -- about 16 percent of it, and the district sells it to about 70 customers, "most of them ... ag interests along the river," and to the Millview and Willow water districts, according to Shoemaker.

Both candidates believe the district wouldn't fare well in the event of a prolonged drought. Merging small districts is a good idea to allow for equipment sharing and cost savings by eliminating duplicated administration, McMichael said. Shoemaker said consolidation makes for less litigation and more agreement among districts.

McMichael noted that ensuring water rights move with the smaller districts is a "major issue."

Millview County Water District

In the race for three open seats on the board of directors for the Millview County Water District, incumbents Jerry Cardoza and Kenneth Budrow face challengers Linda Mason and Jeanne Metcalf.

Explaining a recent court decision, Cardoza said the water district's moratorium is likely to remain in effect for "six months to several years" during the appeals process following a local court's ruling in the district's favor on a disputed water right.

Asked if there was any hope of lifting the moratorium in the district, Budrow said, "Absolutely; if the water right that's in dispute right now -- it's a pre-1914 right -- if that were cleared, that would lift the moratorium." He said the district is also looking into purchasing other water rights in the valley, but "someone has filed a complaint that they don't want those here in the valley."

Metcalf said she was aware of the issues but wasn't sure of the details, and hoped "everything will be worked out in a speedy manner so that we can be assured of our water in the valley."

"Everything they say is about right," Mason said, echoing many of her responses to the questions throughout the discussion.

Cardoza said 300 property owners in the district had applied for water hookups, and the district is not currently able to supply them.